1 Corinthians 2:1-5
I was thinking about that big red chair that the Lord showed me in a dream the other night, you know the leather wing chair, with the high back and the slightly curved outward rolled arms. No buttons on the back but a beautiful soft back, shining gleaming, in the soft light, a radiant red, the colour of the blood of Jesus.
“Rest in me.” Says the Lord. I was then drawn to the story of Annanias and Sapphira. Theirs was a tragedy. When we look at the story in the book of Acts 4 & 5 we see that the church was being built. People were moving in with each other, and there was financial need, there was persecution. Barnabus a young man had the idea to sell one of his properties and give the money to the apostles to bless the ministry. Remember this was the first church. These people were in unity bonded together by their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He had done for them and their fellowship with each other. When Barnabus made the offering everyone knew, not because he was showing off but because of this tight knit community.
Prior to the early church the Jewish people had known religiosity and tradition. Matthew 23:25,26. The religious leaders of the day had a reputation for how things looked on the outside, whilst on the inside they were corrupt and polluted. Luke 11:39. They were greedy, and wanted to look good, they wore tassles on their robes and chose the best seats. Luke 11:43, Matthew 23:5. This attitude and “religiousity” had infected the people when Jesus walked the earth and He noticed it and hated it. Mark 12:41-44
For the Pharisees it was all about pretence and the appearance, how they looked, money, they bought Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, they were legalistic and they criticised others to make themselves feel better. John 8, Matthew 12. It was not about relationship. They were divisive, controlling and power hungry, all hidden behind their robes. Matthew 23:27.
Enter the early church, where relationship was real. They loved the Lord first and foremost, it says many were martyred. They did not betray each other. They lowered Paul down out of a window. They could have handed him over. He had persecuted them. They understood brotherly love. They had all things in common. It must have been challenging, living so closely with each other, but they had a common love for Jesus.
The Gospels were not the first book of the new testament written, chronologically Galations was the book first written and Luke wrote the book of Acts after he had done an internship with Paul. “You fools, said Paul did you first receive salvation by works?”
For the early church the focus of salvation was the risen Christ, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Philip we are told explained to the Ethiopian the prophecies about Jesus and how they had been fulfilled. There was a focus on the power of salvation through the Lamb of God. The power of the blood of Jesus and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit not just to Jews but also to Gentiles.
Enter Annanias and Sapphira. It was not just the lie that they told to the Holy Spirit. It was everything that lie represented. Wanting to appear to be something they were not. Trying to earn favour that God had already bought for them with Jesus precious blood. We read that Barnabus was known as an encourager and well respected. Annanias and Sapphira witnessed this. They saw that others were donating what they had, they saw the praise and appreciation. It would have been talked about amongst the church members. This was not a small group. This was perhaps, they thought, a way to get noticed, to be elevated. The love of money was in the mix, but it was far more than that, if it had just been a love of money there would have been no need to lie. It was the outward appearance, the manipulation of others to like them. The motive behind was far greater than just money.
The Lord was not going to allow the thing that Jesus hated most to come in and destroy His church, the salvation that was purchased with the blood of Jesus.
We need to be authentic and genuine. We need to understand, we cannot buy the favour of the Lord. It was given to us as a free gift. The blood of Jesus cleanses us. We need to be real with each other. We need to be real with God and stop pretending. We don’t need to pretend, it is ok to be an individual. It is ok to be a work in progress.
The bible says to confess your faults one with another and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much…it does not say to brag to each other how good we are and then we will be healed. There is only one Good, the bible says, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The religious spirit, is jealous, lies, divides, criticises, buys and sells affection, pretends to be something it is not. It blocks and prevents people from being who God has called them to be, people try to emulate and copy others not because of relationship with God but trying to people please and impress. It manipulates and controls. It tears down and destroys relationships.
It blames others and refuses to take responsibility.
When we are in relationship with the Lord God, when we are spending time in His word, opening the bible where He directs each day, He will feed the individual, what the individual needs, He will speak by the Holy Spirit and minister to the person. But if we only give God 10 minutes a day from a devotional, then we are feeding on someone else’s revelation from God that was for them. I am not saying God won’t bless it to you, but what if God was wanting to talk to you to grow you in an area that was lacking, and where you were reading you had already walked out with God?
I went to a conference once, and on the second day I walked past some young people who reached their hand out to say hi, as I shook their hands the joy of the Lord fell upon them and they went down under the spirit, this was a highlight for me, seeing them touched by the Lord, another woman however, had gold dust bubbling up in her palms. I thought what’s the big deal, but I looked at her face, to her this was what she needed from God, to this day that line from a Shania Twain song “that don’t impress me much.” Is how I personally feel about gold dust and other strange manifestations, give me a healing, or someone experiencing the love and presence of the Lord, but for some people that is how they feel the Lord speak to them and tell them they are precious.
What I am trying to say is, we need to ask the Lord to break us free from the religious spirit with all it’s manifestations, we need to spend time in the word as an individual, allowing God to direct us to what He wants to say to us, not just rely upon 10 minutes in a devotional. That what I need for the day may not be what you need for the day. We need to allow the Holy Spirit, that power that was poured out at Pentecost have full reign in our lives, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to do what Jesus sent Him to do. Encourage, pray through us, comfort us, teach us, lead us, guide us, anoint us with fresh revelation.
If God hated religiousity so much, that Jesus was continually rebuking the scribes and pharisees and Annanias and Sapphira dropped dead, Paul rebuked Peter openly, we should allow the Holy Spirit to reveal if it is influencing us and rebuke it if need be.
We need a revelation on what Jesus purchased. When we understand that we can’t do it, we won’t ever be able to do it, that we can only do all things through Christ who strengthens us. When we understand there is only one that is to be called good. When we understand that we have the power in Jesus name not because we deserve it or earn it, but because we are in relationship with Him, the real Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Father God, then we will be able to rest and cease from our own works. We will excitedly declare the marvellous things God has done, not what we have done, because we will truly know that He alone is worthy of all praise, and that He really loves us. He is our deliverer, our healer, our friend, our Father, our comforter, our refuge. We can trust in Him because He is not a man who lies, but a God who is faithful.
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